Tag Archives: Lantern

Engine Room March 2024 – Part III

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TUNES

Skepticism might keep you sane,
but it won’t necessarily keep you alive.

[- Mima Sawsaan, Carnival Row -]

When I was at the Engine Room event today to find my next look for a blog post, I came across that amazing outfit from CHANDRA. When I saw that, I immediately remembered that cool head, which BeSpoke released at the Warehouse Sale this round.
I have no clue why, but I instantly had a “Carnival Row Feeling” – you remember that show on Amazon Prime with Cara Delevingne and Orlando Bloom? When I found a sim called “Tirna-Nog” in Second Life, I just had to go that path for my picture today!

Lately you hear more and more about AI (Artificial Intelligence) used for artwork. I have to admit, I am not yet fully sold about that, if people create pictures only with AI and kinda just put words to get a full picture. Maybe I am too old to be convinced completely, or I do have a weird mind. Iam 46 years old – I guess it was 46 *laughs* – I learned to draw with pencils and colored pencils as a kid and it took me years to learn how to draw myself on a graphic tablet/monitor (… and I am still learning that). Maybe that is the reason why I can not yet allow myself andl my brain to think about art, if everything is just generated by words and no one ever touched it with any kind of pen, pencil, graphic pens or what ever you can hold in your hand to create something. Ok to be fair, a photographer is slightly different, but in the end he caught a situation with his own eye and camera in his hands as well *snickers* I hope you get what I mean 😉

What I found interesting after I forced myself to look more into AI, is that you do not have to create a complete ready made art piece with it, but you can enhance your work with it. That caught my interest. I am always looking for new tips, tricks and twists I can learn and use for my Second Life pictures.
Lately I was kinda depressed with taking pictures in SL. It felt all the same even if I tried to learn new techniques for Photoshop to enhance my pictures as even Second Life has it’s limits – especially with lights and shadows, movement or even sometimes with posing ot what you can get to set up a scenery.
You can add things you miss, you can correct minor issues, you even can enlarge a scenery if you took the wrong size to make the perfect picture… really interesting and as well exciting. If you miss a backdrop or a background you can kinda create parts of that. I tried to make a whole backdrop first as well but the way it does look like, I decided to not do that yet, as it was too far always from the look of a real Second Life environment and I do enjoy that still a lot. So I tried just to fool around with 2 birds – to be precise 2 crows – I wanted to add to my picture. It did take me quite a while, since I just started to play with it. I had to generate one crow like 50 times until I figured out what I had to put in to have it sit, no spread wings and facing the right direction. After a while I realized, that it does even pick up the lights I had put inworld already and since I wanted to change that a little too, I had to start over again after I worked all my lightning and shadows. I did not yet know how to safe the generated birds yet, so I started over new on those again. Then I wanted to darken the background a little bit and… DANG… the generated birds again looked wrong as they pick up parts of the background as well to fit in properly. Ok… deleting the birds again and get everything else right first *chuckles*.

It was the start of a learning process I really want to look into more, even if I do not want to fully work with AI and my avatar only – Second Life is way to pretty for that and so many amazing creators, designers and sim builders did (and do) put a hell lot of work into creating amazing places for us to be there and to create pictures.

Clothing

Outfit: +CHANDRA+ – “Lucca Outfit” (Reborn) – NEW @ Engine Room // March 2024

Accessories

Nails: V/. VoluptasVirtualis – “[Esbaa]” (Maitreya, Bento) – NEW @ Engine Room // March 2024

Head, Body & Tattoo

Head: BeSpoke – “Nature Spirit” – NEW @ The Warehouse Sale // March 2024
Eyes: REPULSE – “Post Mortem Eyes (Blind)” (BoM)
Body: eBODY – “REBORN v1.69.6”

Poses, Props & Tools

Pose (incl. Lantern & Keys): [piXit] – “Clementine Posepack + Props” – NEW @ Engine Room // March 2024

Location

Tirna-Nog

Model, Stylist & Photographer

Wicca Merlin

Sleep tight and let dreams of the tooth fairy’s gift fill the night…

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Your smile is a little gappy. The tooth fairy is coming to leave you a little treat to make you happy.

I am back… again! *giggles*

After surviving that weird thing called “real life”, I felt it was time again to go back to Second Life and do some pictures again – I really missed that!

Some already contacted me worrying if I might have been gone – thank you for that that really made me smile and feel better instantly. Yes I am alive and slowly RL seems to calm down again more and more 🙂

When I came back and browsed Flickr, I wondered to still find all those tilted pictures. I know before I had my forced “offline time” they already were there, but I was hoping after that kind of a break they would be gone *chuckles*
When I asked someone back then they tried to convince me that I would be because of the Black Dragon viewer. For what ever reason (I didn’t really understand that and yes I tried Black Dragon too) I was told, that this is the only way to have a good picture/ratio/what ever, that you snap the picture like that. Ok I get that and maybe that is the only way you can do that there, but since most anyway use programs to post-work their pictures, why can you not tilt them the right direction there before you upload it anywhere?
Another person told me they do it, because of the way Flickr displays pictures and because of they would get more Flickr headers in groups… do we really make pictures only to achieve that?

I am not… I prefer my pictures the way people can see them without laying sidewards on the couch, or tilt their heads until their neck gets sore to look at them *snickers* – but what ever floats your boat, I just still try to understand why it is still be done, maybe someone can give me a reason I do understand 😉

Today I come to you with a lot of new releases of the actual round of Midnight Order. Sadly we could not make it this time with the store (damn RL), but the more I would love to show you the amazing designs you can get there.
In the past I wrote about each design and realized people look mostly the credits anyway, so if you want to know the specific items, below you will find them all with names and surals :p

I really enjoyed doing pictures again even if it felt a little bit like walking in high heels after along time… rock road kinda *laughs*, but I found may way back there and I am looking forward to have many more over the next weeks since I’m on holiday now \o/

Thank you so much for reading and supporting my work!

Clothing

Outfit: AsteroidBox – “Midna Corset” (Maitreya) – NEW @ Midnight Order // August 2023
Cape: toksik – “Sweet Time Cape (XS)” – NEW @ Midnight Order // August 2023
Sleeves: [Cubic Cherry] – “{Thai} sleeves” (Maitreya) – NEW @ Midnight Order // August 2023

Accessories

Crown & Halo: Nefekalum – “Sable’s Crown” – NEW @ Midnight Order // August 2023
Earrings: .:E.A.Studio:. – “Earring Mads all linked” (LeLUTKA EvoX female/human)
Ear Lobes: .:E.A.Studio:. – “Inazuma Plug” (LeLUTKA EvoX female/human)
Piercing (Nose): Wicca’s Originals – “Jadeon Piercing” + “Tegan Piercing Set” (unrigged)
Piercing (Mouth): LittleFish – “EziliV2” (Lel. EvoX, Avalon)
Glasses: [CX] – “Farseer Glasses”
Nails & Rings: .:. SHARD .:. – “Ophelia Revenge Claws” (Maitreya, Bento) – NEW @ Midnight Order // August 2023

Hair & Makeup

Hair: Exile – “Abby 1”
Eyeshadow: Nefekalum – “My Anubis 2022 – Eyeshadow 16” (BoM, Materials, LeL. EvoX)
Face Tattoo: BodyArts – “Faceband Wicca” (LeL EvoX BoM, custom made – take a look at the “Vere Flores” or the “Fantasia Face Tattoo”)

Head, Body & Tattoo

Head: LeLUTKA – “EvoX Avalon 3.1”
Teeth: [CX] – “Strigoi’s Fangs – Silver Type.1 ( Size E / Wider )”
Body: Maitreya – “Lara V5.3”
Tattoo: +Nuuna+ – “KATI Black 90%” (BOM) – NEW @ Midnight Order // August 2023

Poses, Props & Tools

Pose: Foxcity – “All Nighter-6m” (Bento, modified)
Backdrop: Spires Society – “The Traitor’s Sanctum w/materials” – NEW @ Midnight Order // August 2023
Lamp (incl. hand/holding pose): [ContraptioN] – “Investigator’s Illuminator L hand” – NEW @ Midnight Order // August 2023
Teeth: [Apika] – “Tooth Fairy” – NEW @ Midnight Order // August 2023

Model, Stylist & Photographer

Wicca Merlin